What Sola Doesn't Put in Emails

The Lagos sunrise that Monday painted Victoria Island in a buttery gold seemed to mock the uneasy buzz that had settled over the sleek glass towers of Vantage Corp. The city’s usual cacophycle of okada engines, hawking vendors, and the distant chant of “Eko!” from the streets was punctuated by the low hum of commuters clutching their coffee cups like talismans. Inside the glass‑walled lobby of the headquarters, a hush had fallen over the front desk staff as the day’s first all‑staff email pinged across the building’s intranet.

Adaeze’s phone buzzed against her thigh just as she was slipping into her favorite black sneakers, the ones she bought on a market stall at Balogun for a bargain price. She glanced at the screen and felt a cold knot tighten in her stomach. The subject line read: “Official Announcement: Vantage Merger with Odufu‑Tech – Effective Immediately.” Below it, in crisp corporate typeface, were bullet points that read like a death sentence for anyone who had built a career on the delicate art of content creation. “Roles will be evaluated,” it said, with a tone that sounded more like a warning than a reassurance.